At its present rate, Dominion Terminal will have shipped out 11 million tons of coal by the end of the year, or about a million tons less than last year. And because of the unpredictability of the strike, the company's future output is uncertain.

"It's hard for us to tell because one week we're up and one week we're down," Phillips said, indicating during a sympathy strike staged by miners at other coal mines their production was down to 40 percent.

"When the strike was going in full force we diverted some ships" to other coal loading ports, said Gerald Parks, president of Norfolk-based Capes Shipping Agency. That agency hasn't laid off any workers, Parks said.

About 47 million tons of coal, representing 57 percent of total U.S. coal exports, were exported through Hampton Roads in 1988. That's a 26 percent increase over the previous year.

Coal is the region's largest export commodity because of the rail network connecting it with the coal fields of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, according to a report released by the Southeastern Virginia Planning District Commission.

Prior to the coal strikes, port officials expected 1989 coal exports to top the previous year by 12 percent to 15 percent, or increase to nearly 54.5 million tons.

The coal strike isn't expected to immediately affect coal deliveries. But they could pose a problem towards the end of the year, said the planning commission's report.

"Because enough coal is in the pipeline," contracts with overseas buyers can be met," the report said.

"However it is expected that coal dumpings will tail off by the end of the year as the impact of the coal strike begins to make itself noticeable."